Abstract/Summary

This paper provides the first opportunity to inform the British hydrological community of the aims and objectives of a collaborative project to develop and evaluate European water scenarios up to 2050. The emphasis is on identifying driving forces and key issues, relating primarily to socio-economic developments, that might influence future water availability and sectoral water demand within Europe, and so inform the scenario development process. These are population and economic growth, agricultural development and technological developments, as well as climate change and land use change, and also national and European policies and legislation. The outputs from the project should make a significant contribution to the development of water policy within Europe through more reliable assessments of future impacts of climate and other changes upon water resources, which, in turn, will improve the cost-effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation strategies for sustainable development.